During the Second World War, the main Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) launched wars against Europe and Pacific nations to claim dominance. Canadians fought against the Axis powers with the main Allied nations (America, Britain and their commonwealth, France, the Soviet Union) to defend their freedom and prevent Axis expansionism. Canadian troops fought primarily in the European theatre but had a smaller presence in the Pacific. After Japan bombed Hawaii's Pearl Harbor in 1941, the proximity of war advancing to North America seemed both real and frightening, and the threat of Japanese dominance shaped public opinion in Canada. White Canadians, who had never been especially warm to Japanese Canadians, became fearful of them, fearing they were acting as spies for the Japanese government. That many Japanese Canadians had no direct connection to Japan was insufficient to sway public sentiment and fear.
Due to the growing concerns about World War II, Japanese Canadians became subject to racial rumours and suspicion of involvement with the Japanese war effort. The Canadian government, wanting to ease white Canadians about a wartime attack in Canada, rounded up Japanese Canadians beginning in 1942 and forced them indefinitely into internment camps. The government stripped them of their assets and properties and forced the men to work in labour camps. Despite having supported Canada’s involvement in the war, these citizens suddenly became pariahs. Sadly, the government chose to describe this action as a way to protect the Japanese Canadian people's safety against the white Canadian population.
Investigations found none of the people interned had been traitors to Canada; their rounding up was a complete injustice, a dark chapter in Canadian history that is often hushed and reparations too meagre.
The purpose of this exhibit is to highlight the injustice Japanese Canadians faced and how Canadians can learn from this tragedy to ensure nothing similar happens again. Fear in Canada turned citizen against citizen, and the federal government chose the side of xenophobia. From the eradication of Japanese media, to the early worries of what would happen, to the separation of families from their homes and each other and the apology that after long last gave former internees some closure, this exhibit details a chronology of harms committed by the Canadian government to Japanese Canadians.